WCP6009

[1]

Woodbank House

Usk-Mon[Mouthshire].

January 12. 1904

Dear Sir,

I have your letter of Nov[ember] 11. 1903 now before me, and on again [1 word illeg.] at I have made further inquiries as to the residence of D^r. Alfred Russell[sic] Wallace being at Kensington Cottage, Llanbadoc. From a paragraph I have cut from a recent newspaper I find the gentleman in question attained his 81^st birthday on the 8^th of this month — and I may be able to give you some further data of Mr Wallace —

On the 23^rd of this month I shall have arrived at the age of 86 years. I was not born at Usk, but I took up my residence in the town in the 1^st of January 1834 and was in business there at the age of 16. as Printer & bookseller.

It appears that D^r.Wallace was born on the 8^th January 1823 about 11 years before I became located in Usk.

[2] Now as to the information I presently sent to you.

When I came to Usk there was a person living there named James Paine a shoemaker. He was born in 1797 and died in 1844[sic] at the age of 87 years. He must therefore have been 27 years of age when D^r Wallace was born at Kensington College in 1823, and was the principal boot and shoemaker in the town, and the probable tradesman employed by the Russell[sic} Wallace's family[.]

The son of the above James Paine is now alive in Usk — between 70-⁸⁰ years age and he told me that his father spoke a M^r Wallace who lived at Kensington Cottage[.]

I have also conversed with a Miss Shepard, a spinster, upwards of 80 years of age — Her father was a solicitor in Usk, and her brother Alexander John Shepard, recently deceased, was a surgeon in Usk town, and she remembers a elder sister [3] Caroline Shepard visiting a family of the name of Wallace at Kensington Cottage[.]

The weather has ^been and is still very unsettled or I would have gone down and given you an outline of the cottage nit if you purpose visiting Usk for the I shall be pleased to see you.

I am | Yours faithfully | James Henry Clark [signature]

J H Thomas Esq

The Walk

Cardiff